Covovax, the second vaccine developed in India, receives emergency approval from the WHO | International | News

The Kovit-19 vaccine CovovaxTM, manufactured by the Serological Institute of India with the license of the US laboratory Novavax, received accreditation for emergency use from the World Health Organization (WHO) this Friday.

This product is the second and ninth to be fully developed and approved in India. Its overall efficiency will be 89%.

It was the first subunit vaccine, that is, made from WHO-approved virus components, and joins the already comprised list of eight made in its two versions by Pfizer-BioEntech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstroGeneca. Sinovac, Sinoform and Bharat Biotech with its Kovacs vaccine, also approved from India, a month ago.

The WHO announced that the Novavox vaccine requires two doses, which can be stored in 2 to 8 commercial refrigerators at room temperature. It is currently being analyzed for approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Emergency Application Approval provides an opportunity for these vaccines to enter the Kovacs program, developed by the WHO in partnership with other organizations to distribute anticoagulant vaccines worldwide at low cost and equivalent doses.

As in previous cases, a team of WHO technical advisers reviewed the quality, efficacy, and safety standards of the vaccine.

Covovax “will increase efforts to vaccinate more people in low-income countries,” the health agency said.

“Vaccines continue to be one of the most effective protection against the severe forms and deaths caused by SARS-COV-2, despite the emergence of new strains,” said Dr. Mariangela Simao, who is in charge of accessing drugs from OMS.

He stressed that the approval should “facilitate access to vaccines for poor countries, of which 41 countries have not yet reached 10%, while 98% of countries have not yet reached 40%”.

The WHO aims to vaccinate 40% of the population of all countries by the end of this year. EFE.

Meanwhile, the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine maker, has announced plans to launch the Covovax version for children in six months, making it the first vaccine for children under 18 years of age. Country with a population of 1,350 million.

Covavax will be launched in India in six months, said Adar Poonavalla, CEO of the manufacturing company, during a conference of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The drug “shows excellent data up to the age of three,” the administrator said.

IPS is one of the largest manufacturers of the vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and the Astrogeneca Laboratory, manufactured in India under the name Covshield.

Due to the large production capacity and low cost of the institute, the Indian manufacturer offers one of the cheapest Govit-19 vaccines in the world.

This product is a major distributor of the vaccine campaign in India, although it has been approved for emergency use of various drugs. CowShield manages most of its population.

The Indian government has so far provided 1,338 million vaccines since the vaccination campaign began last January, and more than 520 million people have already received two doses of the vaccine. More than 1,000 million of these were produced by SII.

According to the National Census, there are about 950 million adults in India who are eligible for the vaccine.

Poonawalla considered this a significant achievement considering the distribution problems, the distribution challenges among the large population and the catastrophic second wave that spread across the country with more than 400,000 daily infections a few months ago.

However, the demand for vaccines in this country has been declining in recent weeks as the authorities have begun to face opposition from a section of the population to be vaccinated.

Serum leader Booster sees vaccines as a strategic move when faced with new variants that facilitate the spread of the virus and a segment of the population.

“One thing is for sure, (vaccine) boosters are a proven technique that will definitely boost antibodies and give you some more protection,” the manufacturer said without directly mentioning India.

India is currently evaluating the possibility of allowing a third dose of the vaccine as a booster in an effort to help control the spread of the virus among its population.

The third round of vaccination in India will cover the entire adult population and the need for hundreds of millions of doses. (I)